Summer Starts = Gardening Season Ends

 We will be in the upper 80s F (~30 C) by week's end.  The gardening season is now mostly over until late October.  Summer is the watering-enough season.
Recently planted Phygelius is producing new flowers, not-yet-blooming Cosmos on either side.  
I've planted a few six-packs of annuals that will hopefully survive: Gomphrena 'Fireworks', white Cosmos, yellow Gaillardias.
That's a rabbit guard.  'Fireworks' nearly got eaten:

 The four baby Echnopsis that produce just a bud or two each, means each flower is still an event. 
 

 'Charlemagne' second flower.  The first one fell off as it opened, so I propped up the second with a perfectly sized Agave offset. 
 He gets by with a little help from his friends. As do we all. 

An accidentally produced pleasing combination of colors here, unfortunately in the area with a painfully clashing red-foliaged Acer palmatum, so this all needs to move come winter.  
 First Dahlia of the year!  Just the start, and one of the few consolations of summer. 
 This little Fuchsia survived a move.  Time to stop moving.  Most plants don't survive a summer move, and the mover doesn't have any fun. 
 This fuchsia also survived moving.  It was a split-off from the first.  There's also a new 'Mr Ripple' Agave, a garden-buddy gift, waiting in the shade for a spot.  Can you wait until October?
The other 'Mr. Ripple', miserable in a pot, has taken hold on the front slope where Yucca linearfolia died.  New growth, looking good.  A larger Agave, it will need all that space around it:

Speaking of Agave size, an aside.  We saw happy, maturing 'Mateo's at the size of the road recently.  It's a much larger Agave than I thought.    These are over 3' (1 M) high and wide:
 
Back at home.  This next area, formerly a lawn, where I hoped to put a hummingbird luring fountain, has become the "mostly magenta bed", with 'Darcy Bussel', 'Rouge Royale', and 'Munstead Wood' roses, Phygelius,  'Wendy's Wish' Salvia, Echeveria 'Ruby Slippers', Coprosma 'Pacific Sunset', 'Bourbon' Clematis, Scabiosa 'Black Pom Pom' and several Hemerocallis eyes providing a range of magentas.  Other stuff ended up there, too.  Lavender-blue Salvia 'Blue Hill, lavender-blue Clematis 'Perle d'Azur', lavender-blue Geranium 'Rozanne'.  Sure don't miss the lawn.  A fountain would be nice, though.
 That is 1 happy Salvia 'Blue Hill'.  The plant is 10 years old, spreads from a 10" base to a carpet 3' across, has been in several other locations over the years, has been split to produce new plants, and still blooms like crazy from April to Halloween.  What would we do if every plant was this good? 
 Another former lawn area becoming stuffed with flowers.  What can I say?  I like flowers... 

 ...flowers such as Sweet Peas, which will die when the heat arrives on Friday.  They are already mildewing, the sign of their end.  I enjoy the lavender-blue of them with the lavender-grey Echeveria.  And come to think of it, they are both frilly.

Note for the official record that the solitary Agastache success here has been 'Blue Fortune'.  Every other one has quickly died without my help.  'Blue Fortune', in contrast, is returning for a second year that looks to be as fabulous as the first.   
 New plant,  Buddleia 'Buzz Midnight', to attract more butterflies.  This is intended to be an annual, to be tossed in the fall when it looks so dreadful it won't ping the conscience to toss it.  I had mistakenly thought this is one of the new sterile dwarf cultivars, but unfortunately it is not, so prompt deadheading required.  The color may be too dour to attract butterflies.  Oh well, it was on sale. 
That's what's up here, besides the temperatures. 

Comments

  1. O, tell me it isn't so! I could use a few more days of good (gray) weather, heck, a few more weeks would even be welcomed.

    You've got some nice blooms 'specially the cacti. I can't grow agastache either and my Wendy's Wish droops constantly wet or not, yours looks more upright.

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    1. Let's hope this heat is a brief aberration and we get June Gloom until the first week in July. Surely that's a fair deal!

      I cut back 'Wendy' on a regular basis to keep it looking (mostly) fresh...

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  2. I haven't tried that Agastache but, if it's doing that well for you, I'll add it to next year's list. Other than one Agastache mexicana I planted years ago, they're usually one season wonders for me but I planted a new one (A. 'Kudos Mandarin') this year in a leap of faith. Luckily, we're still on the cool side due to a healthy blanket of June gloom, which never fully cleared today. Upper 70s/low 80s are expected Friday-Saturday with a drop in temperature afterwards - I hope those predictions prove correct. Continuing to tempt fate despite better judgement, I placed a mail order for delivery next week.

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    1. 'Royal Fortune' has been excellent, do try it. Mail order? Looking forward to see what you got.

      Lucky you more gloom--enjoy it for me!

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  3. Funny how gardening season ends there just as it gets going here. Impressive Mateo, never seen a big one before.

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    1. I haven't seen any that size either. It was a Honey-Stop-The-Car moment.

      Enjoy your gardening season! We'll all huddled inside around the air conditioner.

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  4. The agave Mr Ripple looks great, it's going to be amazing in a few years. Sorry to hear the gardening is coming to an end for the summer. In the Uk it is a little different with June being a traditional wet month (supposedly our monsoon month) and often colder than May

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    1. We have to have some bad weather, otherwise the house would never get cleaned.

      Aren't all your months wet months? Sorry just jealous! Your rivers have water in them. Ours have dust.

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  5. Our gardening season has ended also. Time to perfect the drip irrigation system and add a few extra feet for recent plantings. Not my idea of fun. Summer hasn't even started, and I'm already counting the days 'til fall. I'm envious of your fuschia and that salvia. Is it hardy? I tried leucantha this year and none of it survived the winter.

    PS. I like your snazzy rabbit guard (I just use chicken wire).

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    1. The Salvia is extremely cold hardy, to -30 C.

      I use those little rabbit guards over and over. They have proven unexpectedly useful.

      I have some drip lines to work on, also. Good luck with yours! It's not fun, but it does save a lot of work (and water).

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  6. Many lovely plants and flowers dear Hoover, I love the colour of your Hydrangea and the Sweet Peas, the lavender-grey Echeveria and the blue Agastache, all soothing colours.
    I hope the heat is not too devastating for you or the garden.
    xoxoxo ♡

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    1. I hope it's a more "normal" summer, not too hot. It's good to hope.

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  7. I love the title of your post. I couldn't agree more.

    I did buy two variegated lavenders last Saturday but I decided to pot them up into 1 gallon pots and wait until cooler weather (maybe even the fall) to plant them. We're expecting 100°F today, 104°F tomorrow. Shoot me!

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    1. Shoot you? With ice cold water, how does that sound? Let's hope it cools off again for a while. For a long while!

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  8. Mr. Ripple will indeed fill that spot, which is going to be awesome since he'll be viewed "in the round." Mine was always viewable from one side only, since he was sandwiched against the Little Ollies (not so little at 7 feet tall). I'm determined not to let the ground get bone dry and hard to rewet like I do every summer so am excited to see how things do with the drip hoses. The tetrapanax is like a different plant getting weekly/biweekly moisture. Very impressed with 'Blue Hill.' I didn't think "those" salvias were reliable for us. Good to know.

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    1. Such a beautiful plant, thanks again for it. A fine successor makes up for losing the Yucca linearfolia. Gentryi 'Jaws' is also out there now too.

      So you are doing drip hoses this year? Should make summer a little easier, eh?

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  9. Where did you find the Mr. Ripple? I've been looking for one...

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    1. That one is from Denise! :) The new one is from a neighbor/garden buddy. Have not gotten an offset yet, else I would offer it to you.

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  10. Can't get over the contrast between the dowdy, almost unpleasant buds of the cactus and the show-stopping glamor of the open blooms...

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    1. The Force is...balanced. Beauty and its opposite, half of each. :)

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  11. A mi me encantan los cactus y cuando veo una floración me quedo con la boca abierta, pero no por ello decir que todas las fotos que has puesto son preciosas. Mis felicitaciones. Un abrazo desde Plantukis

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    1. A menos que uno crece cactus, uno no se da cuenta lo hermosa que las flores son. Ellos son magníficas.

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  12. Ain't nothin' wrong with likin' flowers, especially when they're as well grown and beautiful as yours! It was in the upper 80's here today but the heat won't last. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time earlier in the season when moving should take place. Fortunately, our summers aren't as brutal as yours and we can often get away with a summer move.

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    1. I can actually move certain plants in summer--just don't want to!

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  13. Wow you have lots of goodies !!! Haven't had some of your flowers in years...nice to see them again. The cacti are pretty neat looking. Temp hear today thinking maybe 80 degrees.

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    1. Well I do like flowers!

      80F isn't bad unless you are digging a planting hole in hard soil in the sun...or maybe I'm just a wimp!

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